The present invention relates to an improved sharpener construction for a fabric cutting machine.
By way of background, in certain types of fabric cutting machines, a reciprocating knife is driven by a motor. Periodically the knife has to be sharpened. Prior sharpening mechanisms included a pair of sharpener wheels on opposite sides of the blade, with mechanism for rotating the sharpener wheels and also for moving the sharpener wheels along opposite sides of the blade. However, prior constructions possessed certain deficiencies. The first deficiency was that the drive mechanism for driving the sharpener wheels was relatively complicated in that it included complex gear, pulley and rod arrangements for the purpose of transmitting motion from the cutting machine motor to the sharpener wheels. A second deficiency was that the sharpener wheels were so arranged so that both sides of the lowermost portion of the knife might not be sharpened. A third deficiency was that the arrangement for securing the sharpener mechanism in its non-operating position was relatively complex and required numerous manipulations on the part of the machine operator, which often resulted in improperly securing the sharpener mechanism when it was not in use. It is with overcoming the foregoing deficiencies that the present invention is concerned.